Hilton Honors Changes
What was spreading around last week is now official this one. A plethora of Hilton Honors changes were announced, perhaps led by the program’s new top-tier elite status, Diamond Reserve. DDG covered all of them here. In our quite-personal points and travel hobby, opinions of each change will widely vary. So I won’t bog you down with my exhaustive (and perhaps exhausting) views on every single tweak. Rather, I’m sharing my biggest takeaways, including what I’m watching out for based on these changes.
Free Night Rewards Remain Unchanged
Hilton Honors tweaked plenty yesterday, but I’m more heartened by what the program has not done. Hilton Honors did not devalue what I consider to be the biggest highlight of its program – free night certificates. Hilton’s certs continue to be redeemable across the vast majority of the program’s portfolio, with just a few exceptions (mostly timeshare properties).
I consider Hilton’s certs the best of their kind in the entire hotel loyalty program realm, and my opinion certainly isn’t unique. Hilton has also continued to, ahem, adjust points rates across Hilton Honors properties upward, with the program recently walking back a few property increases. Using Hilton certs for free nights rather than increasing amounts of points remains a solid cheat code. Plus, it’s not too difficult to pick up multiple certs over time, whether via Amex card big spend bonuses, welcome offers, or soon after approval and card anniversary with the Hilton Aspire.
I’ve been watching out for a Hilton cert devaluation for some time, so it’s nice to get a reprieve. I won’t get too comfortable here; I figure that cert devaluation is coming sooner or later – these FNC’s seem weirdly too valuable. But in the meantime, I’ll keep hoarding these, as we’ve had no trouble using them. Consider riding the wave yourself!
Diamond Devaluation, But How Much?
Of course, the creation of the new Diamond Reserve top-tier status knocks current Diamond members down in the pecking order. Not only does the latter move down, it (and the other levels) are even easier to obtain via stays, since Hilton Honors lowered those thresholds, as well. And we can’t forget that Hilton Honors members can already pick up Silver, Gold, or Diamond status by simply holding certain Amex cards, cobranded and otherwise.
Hilton Honors has already started the process of devaluing the late checkout benefit. I haven’t experienced the brunt of that yet during recent stays, but I can only imagine it’s coming, especially with the program touting the new, guaranteed 4 pm late checkout Diamond Reserve benefit. It won’t get better for legacy status holders. In my view, a day will come where late checkout, previously a firm benefit for Diamond elites, is completely removed there and held exclusively for Diamond Reserve members.
As Diamond members, my wife and I have historically received room and suite upgrades on a considerable amount of our stays. Naturally, I imagine that frequency will decrease in the future. On one hand, maybe not much, as Diamond Reserve members only receive one confirmable upgrade at the time of booking. But on the other hand, the majority of Diamond upgrades will probably shift to Diamond Reserve members at check-in.
Of course, I’ll keep politely asking at check-in for upgrades as a Diamond. But I’ll need to manage my expectations even more here and know my place. My gut tells me Diamonds will continue to be upgraded, but more often these bumps will be slight ones (better views, negligibly-bigger rooms, etc).
Diamond Reserve’s a Yawn for Most
I’m confident I won’t ever hold Diamond Reserve status. That’s because I have zero plans to spend $18k in cash money at Hilton Honors or any other properties. Not coincidentally, I feel the same way about the Marriott Bonvoy program’s Titanium status requiring $23k spend. Achieving such a qualification requirement is antithetical to how I go about the points and travel hobby. Perhaps you can relate.
But Diamond Reserve is definitely attractive to a subset of Hilton loyalists. For instance, business travelers reimbursed for their expenses have a solid opportunity here. Such individuals can now rise above the Diamond masses and experience the best of the Hilton Honors program’s enhancements at the Reserve level. Whether it’s worth doing is highly variable based on such travelers’ specific situations.
I generally don’t bother with hypotheticals, but I’ll briefly consider one here. If Hilton Honors automatically granted me Diamond Reserve status, which benefits would I appreciate? I only consider two noteworthy – the one confirmable upgrade at booking and guaranteed late checkout. Higher priority for upgrades at check-in is nice but difficult to quantify. And so much else means pretty much nothing to me, including:
- Diamond Reserve-dedicated customer support. I’ve been happy enough with all phone support I’ve received from Hilton Honors at the Gold and Diamond levels. I doubt that service substantively degrades with the introduction of Diamond Reserve.
- Access to Premium Clubs. So few exist, and Hilton lounges are meh, at best, in my experience.
- Higher point bonuses for room and incidental charges. Again, we generally focus on spending as little as possible on travel, so such earning is basically meaningless.
Hilton Honors Changes – Conclusion
Based on these Hilton Honors changes, how am I tweaking my behavior? Not much, if at all. I imagine Hilton Honors has quite-shrewdly figured I and many other members won’t. I’m generally a hotel loyalty program free agent, but I skew more to Hilton Honors than any other. I’ll keep redeeming points within a variety of programs. With the Hilton Honors ones, I probably won’t be upgraded as significantly and/or as much, and I’ll have to get out of the room quicker on the last morning of my stay. I haven’t opted for a particular Hilton property based on either of those benefits, anyway, since they weren’t guaranteed for Diamonds before. I don’t magically care about them now.
How do you feel about these latest Hilton Honors changes?
Remember, back in the early days, loyalty programs were put in place with real benefits and reasonable redemption options in order to secure your “loyalty”. Fast forward to today and you’ll find astronomical points needed for room redemptions, devaluations or elimination all together of benefits, basic functions like daily room cleaning eliminated, mysterious fees magically appearing on a portfolio and a lot of hotels refusing to honor a program’s rules. I feel that some hotel brands have done more to turn a customer against the brand rather than build it up.
So all these “enhancements” mean that I no longer am married to a certain brand. In fact, most of my stays are now at Choice and IHG properties, especially with IHG improving there Diamond status with the addition of breakfast and room upgrades even on award stays, something they didn’t used to offer.
So these days the brand of the hotel means less to me. If I can get a room with things that I value like a sofa or recliner or free restaurant style buffet or full breakfast and the point redemptions are reasonable, that’s where I’ll be spending the night.